1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording medium drive or storage device designed to utilize a recording medium such as a magnetic recording disk for managing information data, for example. In particular, the invention relates to a recording medium drive such as a hard disk drive (HDD) comprising a so-called load/unload mechanism.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A hard disk drive (HDD) sometimes comprises a load/unload mechanism. In general, the load/unload mechanism comprises a load bar extending in the forward direction from the tip or front end of a load beam, and a ramp member located outside a magnetic recording disk so as to define a slope along the path of movement of the load bar. The load bar is allowed to climb up the slope before the magnetic recording disk stops rotating. As the load bar keeps climbing, the front end of the load beam gets remoter from the surface of the rotating magnetic recording disk. When the front end of the load beam is lifted above the magnetic recording disk in this manner, a head slider is allowed to get distanced from the surface of the rotating magnetic recording disk.
A so-called limiter is utilized to get the head slider remote from the surface of the rotating magnetic recording disk. The limiter is in general attached to the load beam or a gimbal actually supporting the head slider. When the front end of the load beam is lifted to a predetermined elevation above the surface of the rotating magnetic recording disk, a part of the gimbal or load beam is engaged with the limiter. The lift of the load bar is in this manner physically related to the gimbal or load beam. The gimbal or load beam is lifted so that the head slider is allowed to get distanced from the surface of the rotating magnetic recording disk.
The limiter of the aforementioned load/unload mechanism must be made or produced at a higher accuracy. If a space or distance is too large between the limiter and the gimbal or load beam, the limiter cannot be engaged with the gimbal or load beam irrespective of the lift of the load beam. Accordingly, the head slider cannot be distanced from the surface of the magnetic recording disk.